Transitional support for physically challenged persons who require assistance in moving from one position or location to another, for example rising or escaping from a fall, or transitioning from a wheelchair to an examination table, or an X-ray table, and for access and evacuation to and from places where barriers are such that they cannot climb them or a wheelchair cannot negotiate.
The term xe2x80x9ctransitionxe2x80x9d is used herein to mean the movement of a person from one position or location to another.
A wide array of events, disease, and deterioration face persons of all ages and physical conditions. Prominent among them are those which impair or prevent a person""s motor functions, including unconsciousness and the inability to respond to a need to move. These involve the simplest yet most important physical capabilitiesxe2x80x94the transitional abilities to get up from the floor, stand up, sit down, move from one seat to another, or to move from a seat to a table such as an examination table or an X-ray table.
The incapacity to negotiate any of these movements can and does cause severe reduction in the quality of one""s life. Recent litigation under the Americans With Disabilities Act complains of the reluctance and difficulties of transitioning from a wheelchair to an examination table or an X-ray table, for example. In one such case, the wheelchair-bound patient had a physical examination while seated (with bed sores concealed from view), and had never had them directly examined, and also had never received a gynecological examination. The physician simply had no means other than manually lifting to lift and transfer the patient, and dealt with him seated in the chair.
A visit to a nursing home will show many such and related problems. Prominent among them are falls. When a person falls, somehow he or she must be lifted off of the floor. Such a situation also occurs all too frequently in the home. Lifting the person by one or two people involves serious risk, not only to the elderly, but also to the persons who must pick them up. There is a substantial reluctance by attendants to pick people up because among other things, the risks of injury to themselves are quite high.
As an example, ribs can readily be broken. This situation is even riskier when the fall is in a limited area such as a small bathroom. The task of removing the person from the area is complicated by the large sizes of two emergency personnel as well as of the fallen person, who then must be carried through a narrow door.
A common technique to raise a fallen person, or manually to transition one, is to grip the person from the rear, under the arms, and hold the person against his own weight. This means compressing the person at great risk where their bones are weak. This can cause great pain, and the response to such pain is a cry, which is unsettling to the assistant. Severe bruising often occurs as well as broken bones, even with the most considerate handling.
Beyond the emotional and physical risk to the fallen person are the accompanying risks and damages to the helpers. Even a light person weighing 150 pounds means a load on the assistant of 75 pounds, exerted in a most difficult posture. Heavier persons presents loads which readily exceed OSHA standards for weights to be lifted.
As a consequence of these and other related risks, workers compensation rates in convalescent hospitals are very high. In fact, the incidence of occupational and illness cases per 100 full-time workers (in 1994) in nursing homes was 16.8, compared to 8.4 in industry generally.
This helps to explain the reluctance of nursing homes and hospital workers to lift patients manually. In fact, often there is a flat refusal to do so.
This invention provides means for access to the lifting process of more than two persons, so that a heavy weight can be distributed to the extent that the load on each attendant is within tolerable limits. Also, the means according to this invention for lifting the person enables the attendants to assume a safe and efficient posture, thereby reducing their exposure to risk.
The fear experienced by a physically challenged person being transitioned from one stable position to another is understandable, as is the embarrassment attendant upon being moved in such a manner. As to pride, a modest woman in her night gown anticipates with dread the unavoidable exposure of her body when she is moved under stringent conditions.
It is an object of this invention to provide devices useful for transitioning challenged persons from one position to another with no or at least less trauma, and providing them with continuing assurance that with these helpful devices available, much safer and agreeable transitions are there for them when they are needed.
There are other situations in which incapacities of the type described above are nearly as daunting to the challenged person as those which relate to movement of a fallen or unconscious person. These relate to physical barriers which cannot be traversed by a wheelchair, or which are beyond the capacity of a conscious and alert person to surmount. The best-known example is a few stairs. Sometimes only one stair is unsurmountable.
The limitations of the staircase are regularly attended to where a person lives, or wherever public policy prescribes that access be provided. The common remedy is a ramp. They are seen everywherexe2x80x94on curbs and around stairs. The homes of challenged persons are frequently provided with ramps.
But what if the situation or arrangement is such that the installation of ramps is too seldom needed or not required by law, and therefore not provided? A particularly poignant such situation is the home of a friend. Are there are steps leading into every entry? All too often the challenged person simply does not visit. How would the person be carried up? A well-dressed and proud person is reluctant to be picked up by two persons with arms under him or her, hanging onto their shoulders, and often the clumsy orientation of the load presented by the person is beyond the lifting capability of the persons.
There is yet another. In buildings and hotels with elevators, all is well until the fire alarm sounds. Then the elevators don""t work. What is the challenged person to do? It is a worrisome thought.
It is another object of this invention to provide a support for the challenged person that will hold him or her in a seated position in structures that can be lifted conveniently at the sides. The load to be lifted is stabilized and well-distributed. The person can readily be placed in the device of this invention and then be transitioned with dignity up or down stairs and past any barriers, and thereafter handily placed in a seated position on a wheelchair or article of furniture.
Thus the same device that is so useful in succoring a fallen person or transitioning a person in some facility, can enable visits to friends homes, or to be able to occupy quarters with steps which would otherwise not be available.
Attention is called to the convenience of placing the person in the seated position with the use of this invention.
A support according to this invention is adaptable to be fitted to a disabled person to engage the person in a safe manner for movement with no or minimal physical risk. Also this provides rigid members which can be placed after the support is fitted, to enable the person conveniently to be lifted and moved, and to enable the load to be distributed in a convenient manner
According to an optional feature of the invention, a back strap is releasably fitted between two sides of a flexible base sheet to form a chair-like structure for conveying the person while in a sitting posture.
According to another optional embodiment of this invention, the support may be provided with an extension that permits a person on it to be slid along the floor in order to be removed from a confined area.